>>1152598 (#1441)
>>1152450 (#1441)
The white robes are passed out now…
[I already have mine, eh]
This 'gathering' is much later; i.e. for those who have passed through the Tribulation to come… (Rev 7:14)
whiterobe ~<<@>>~
>>1153516 (#1442)
When family members were property…
When human sacrifice was 'the highest altar'…
Considering the long ago, fallen nature of the humanity: In the beginning there was blood… And, not wanting to know about human sacrifice is a dominant motif in modern religious history.
When the Greek historian Pausanius visited the sanctuary of Zeus atop Mount Lykaion in Arcadia in the second century AD, he learned of secret rituals performed at the site in ancient history, by a people the Greeks described as "older than the moon"; the "unspeakable sacrifice" - the yearly murder, dismemberment, and communal eating of a child at the mountaintop. Pausanius stated "I could see no pleasure in delving further into this sacrifice. Let it be as it is and as it was from the beginning."
Comparing the words of Pausanius with the Roman Catholic celebration of the Godhead "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end," Pausanius' liturgial statement ascribes eternity to a gruesome blood ritual, and from an anthropological perspective, he is correct. Blood sacrifice is the oldest and most universal act of piety. The offering of animals, including the human animal, dates back at least twenty thousand years, and arguably back to the earliest appearance of humanity…
A man shot to death by arrows, lies close at hand- and underfoot at Stonehenge; the Greek geographer Strabo wrote that Druids performed human sacrifice by shooting arrows.
Within two miles of Stonehenge, there is another circle, built of wooden posts, called Woodhenge. In the center of Woodhenge excavators found a three and a half year old girl whose skull had been split "before burial" by an axe. She was killed 4000 years ago, about the time the giant standing stones at Stonehenge were erected. Apparently she served as a 'foundation sacrifice' for Woodhenge, making her the 'guardian spirit' of the place….
One of the common features of British stone circles, including Stonehenge, is the presence of cremated human bones. Forensic analysis of bones at fifty Scottish stone circles revealed that there are too few individuals for family burials, and that a disproportionate number were children… "There is a smell of ritual death about all of this," concluded archaeologist Aubrey Burl in an article for Scientific American.
Folk tales about children being burned to death inside these stone circles have survived until modern times, along with the custom of having children leap over bonfires at the harvest, a rite linked to real sacrifices in antiquity.
"Stonehenge was not an academy for research into the stars and the nature of the universe," Burl states in his 1987 book, The Stonehenge People. "It was a place of death, built by people whose needs and fears were very different from our own."
Ritual human sacrifice constituted the primitive core for the ancient Panhellenic celebrations at Mount Olympus, Bronze Age ceremonies at Stonehenge, Jewish holidays at the Great Temple on Mount Moriah, and the dynastic offerings atop the Mayan pyramids. "The only prehistoric and historic groups obviously able to assert themselves were those held together by the ritual power to kill," wrote Walter Burkhart in his book Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth.
"Through solidarity and cooperative organization, and by establishing an inviolable order, the sacrificial ritual gave society its form.
In the ancient Holy Land, the tradition of child sacrifice was an ancient rite.
The Pontifical Museum of Jerusalem contains the skeletons of two infants whose heads were violently severed from their bodies some five thousand years ago, before they were buried in jars underneath the entrance to houses near the Dead Sea. The caption below the exhibit reads: "The necropolis at Ghassul has not yet been excavated, but a few dozen infant burials have been found in the town area [such as these two]. They were invariably buried under house floors [at the entrance] and were quite possibly foundation sacrifices as encountered elsewhere in the ancient Near East.
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Romans teaches us the story of guilt to glory …
In the very ancient world 'human sacrifice' was a common ritual, practiced by every ancient culture. Not wanting to know the truth about this ancient practice of human sacrifice is a dominant motif in modern religious history.
Many ancient cultures required the sacrifice of your first-born as your 'idol' to communicate with the local 'god'… You may recall the story of Abraham and his first-born son, Isaac, (Genesis Chap 22) and how Abraham, GOD's friend by his faith and belief in GOD, found the ram, caught in the thicket, to replace Isaac on the sacrificial altar…
In the Judeo-Christian culture, GOD taught Abraham to reject human sacrifice … animals were substituted. Now, these animal sacrifices were required for an appropriation for the continuing sins, i.e. the fallen, sinful nature of the people and of their rulers required the most pious to participate …
Now Moses taught in Leviticus that when the Israelites committed a crime against GOD, or their fellows … they could not just say "we're sorry!". A penalty had to be paid. There were 'animal sacrifices' as 'burnt offerings' to the LORD for the forgiveness of sins, for the re-dedication of righteousness, and a shared offering for fellowship.
A good portion of the national economy of Israel went up in smoke each year: hundreds of animals, and a lot of manpower to gather wood, to keep the fires lit, and to offer the sacrifices.
When Jesus came to Jerusalem during His ministry, the smell of the daily sacrifices hung over the city. The Israelite's could rarely afford meat, but every day they smelled the aroma of the barbeque dedicated to GOD.
When Jesus cleared the Temple in Jerusalem; Mark 11:16 [He]"…would not allow anyone to carry merchandise [offerings] through the temple courts." Jesus Christ, GOD's offering to humanity for our very salvation, stopped the daily offerings and oblations in the Temple as prophesied by Daniel 9:27.
In Romans Chapter 1, Paul introduces Jesus Christ to the first Christians in Rome, who had been planted there by the Holy Ghost. Paul describes how men had rejected the true GOD who had revealed himself in nature and in man's conscience, men turned to false gods and widespread destruction of civil society occurred because of sexual immorality and perversion. A spirit of violence and cruelty was rising and a total disregard of human rights was spreading throughout the world at that time.
There are many people who would read Romans Chap 1 today and say they do not belong in 'this picture'. I am sure there were thousands in Paul's day, and there are millions today who feel they are not described in Romans 1. "That isn't talking about us. We're not like that. It may describe them, but it does not describe us."
Whenever you read this first chapter of Romans you find that division immediately evident – them and us. They are the wicked, the obviously gross and hateful, wicked people; we are not. Many people would say, "We're law-abiding, home-loving, family-loving, clean-living, decent people."
Many of these people have been church members most of their lives. Others perhaps do not go to church at all, but nevertheless pride themselves on their moral standards, their ethical values, and their clean, law-abiding lives.
They say the world may be in its present condition because of the wickedness of gangsters, radicals, revolutionaries, prostitutes, pimps, and perverts of our day; but they themselves are the salt of the earth.
It is on these "us" people that the apostle turns his spotlight in Chapter 2. Paul develops his argument in three separate steps. The first is given in Verse 1…
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. (Romans 2:1 NIV) …
In passing judgment on others; first be honest, then be kind with your words. For we will all be judged by our words and actions. Remember to love the LORD always, and your neighbor as yourself…
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